The Open Corner: GO August #3, Perri Neri

“Leaving,” 2007, 72″ x 60″, Oil on Canvas

This week, our GO artist is descended from a bona fide (well, beatified) Catholic saint. He was known for approaching his calling with spontaneity, unpredictability, charm, and humor. Naturally, his distant relative approaches her equally serious calling with similar qualities.

Read about her below and then pay a visit to her studio during the GO Open Studios September 8-9.

GO Artist: Perri Neri

What, if anything, are you trying to communicate or explore with your work? What inspires you to create what you create?

Jokingly I say, “When Georgia O’Keeffe paints flowers, people see vaginas. When I paint vaginas, people see flowers.” But really I am rethinking the body, more specifically, my female body; giving form to particular sense impressions. The unfolding and enfolding shades of red, of the blood that gives life to flesh; skin with which I caress while feeling the other; a body capable of receiving as well as giving; nurturing and procreating.

I am at once wife, lover, mother, and daughter, inspired by the complexity and wholeness of intimate experiences.

A few of your paintings (Emerging, Discovering, and Leaving) have more realistic portraits in them. Are those specific people in your life or were you more interested in the quality of a child, a young woman, and an older woman? Or maybe both?

Those three paintings were the first ones to use my new vocabulary. (By vocabulary I mean my painter’s hand, the way the marks are made.) My work is not separate from me. It goes through me and has a deep connection to who I am. I wanted to find a shape that would give form to this force, this energy that I could imagine surrounds me and connects me to my wife, my mother, my daughter, and my grandmother. The young woman in Discovering, for example, is my daughter as I envisioned her bursting from the naïve to the knowing. The older woman represents both my grandmothers, one who was dying at the time I painted it and the other who had died many years ago. I was reconnecting with both of them. I could see their stories as a regenerating force; their speech is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched.

Looking at the paintings on your website that you did before 2005, when you started your MFA program, and the ones you’ve done since, there seems to be a pretty significant shift in style. What do you think caused that shift, and how important to your development as an artist was your MFA program?

The work before 2005 had been developed for over 15 years. I was strong in technique — I mean I could paint a figure! I studied the old-fashioned way, lots of figure study classes and countless hours of drawing and painting from the masters! When I discovered that Michelangelo’s mother’s maiden name was Francesca di Neri, I dove right into the Renaissance and did not look back! I wanted so badly to be on that family tree (which I am not by the way…my ancestor was St. Philip Neri, but that is another story). So between art history and undergrad women’s study classes (Griselda Pollock’s Differencing the Canon was my bible), I was on a mission to not only break down the implied male authority in the media, but to reclaim the classic female form from the phallocentric histories of art! I knew I was taking on too much and worse, I knew that I was not being effective.

I went to Pratt to figure out how to make my own mark as a painter; to find a way to have more effect while trying not to be trite or fall into my own absolutisms.

The shift was definitely caused by my awareness of the need to make that shift, and by the tough professors and harsh critiques of fellow grad students that took away my crutches and pushed me off the cliff! It was awesome! The “to do list” I had while a student at Pratt is now my artist’s statement [pictured to the right].

Is your studio, like the other artists we’ve profiled, also part of where you live? How do you feel about opening it up to people?

My studio is in my house, yes. At first I was not sure how I felt about the public coming into my home to get to my studio, but the Brooklyn Museum folks who are running this show seem to really have it together. I am very excited to be a part of the big picture!

What should people expect when they walk in the door?

Oh I suppose they will see how we live with the art first of all. My paintings are all over the place as I am getting ready for my show in November, and I do not have space in my studio to store finished works. I will close off as much of the living spaces as possible and direct visitors directly to the studio. Visitors can expect to see a studio full of work in progress.

Why did you choose to have your studio in Ditmas Park? Are you glad you did or is there another neighborhood/area of the city you would rather be in if you could? I know that’s a loaded question, but please be honest — we can take it!

When my wife and I were house hunting almost 5 years ago, we were so surprised to find this neighborhood seemingly from another era plopped down between so much city craziness. We could actually feel the tension release from our bodies. The choice to work out of the house was a financial one but mostly it was about being home when our daughter got home from school. I am very lucky to be able to do that! But now, even though she is almost college-bound, I fantasize more about turning the whole second floor into my studio instead of looking for separate studio space!

You have a solo exhibit at Ceres Gallery in Manhattan opening on November 1. Your CV says you’re a member of the gallery. Can you explain a little bit about that relationship? It sounds a little different than a traditional “gallery representing artists” sort of situation.

Well if there is one thing I did not get out of grad school it was how to navigate the art world. Let’s face it, there is not a lack of talented artists in this city, and we all want exposure. How to get that exposure is a talent all in itself, a talent that I do not possess. The traditional gallery route was not working for me.

I looked into several collective, artist-run galleries, but Ceres was different and I connected with their mission right away. Ceres has been around for a long time, coming up on the 30th

year! And throughout this whole time, Ceres has been dedicated to women in the arts. There is an application process in order to get invited to join. This is not a vanity gallery — not by a long shot! It is not easy to get accepted, and I take it as an honor to have been invited to join.

The membership dues are minimal and go directly to the running of the gallery. We have monthly meetings where we listen, laugh, share knowledge and resources, and truly support and respect each other as artists! Each member gets a solo show once every two years. If you sell work, the artist gets 100% of the money. The gallery and its mission support the artist, not the other way around! In the meantime, there are group shows to organize, installing and de-installing sister members’ shows, and yes, showing in Ceres will give exposure in NYC, a chance for one of those traditional galleries to scoop me up!

8) Do you have any other shows/exhibits coming up that people can check out if they can’t make it to the open studio in September?

My solo show at Ceres opens November 1. If people email me, I will send them an invitation.

About Perri

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Perri is a member of the College Art Association who received her MFA with distinction in 2007 from the Pratt Institute, New York City, New York. She graduated Magna Cum Laude at the University of Tampa, Florida.

Her first solo show in NYC is coming up in November at Ceres Gallery in Chelsea. Her works are part of the permanent collection at the Tampa Museum of Art and Scarfone-Hartley Gallery, University of Tampa.

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Email: perrineri@yahoo.com

Website: www.perrineri.com

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The Open Corner will return to its usual programming in September. Interested in participating? Email Avi here.